If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Hybrid View

and when does a nymph become a streamer?

I picked out a fly from my box yesterday that looked like it would serve as a weight to get my other fly down into the fishes target and after I got a fish on it wondered about what it was. It had a peacock body, bead head, and a marabou tail - also a kf stripe down the side. It was one of my ties, but don't remember where I got the idea for it. I do remember a pattern of Gary LaFontaines where he used a marabou tail on a nymph, but it made me wonder.

I dead drift Wooly Buggers (Size 10-6) on the bottom just like a nymph. I believe (only the fish know), they are taken for large Stone Nymphs. This is a Streamer, that is being nymphed. Come to think of it. I use to do the same with Muddler Minnows.

Harry Murray uses the term "strymph" for flies that can be fished either as streamer or as a nymph (sometimes on the same cast). He ties something similar to what you describe where he uses a bunch of shank length ostrich herl for the tail. http://catalog.murraysflyshop.com/co...urrays-strymph

Rich Osthoff ties a similar fly with a long tuft of rabbit fur for a tail. He advocates fishing it in an "active" manner which strikes me as a cross between dead drift nymphing and active, tight line streamer fishing. http://www.richosthoff.com/2378.html

I dead drift Wooly Buggers (Size 10-6) on the bottom just like a nymph. I believe (only the fish know), they are taken for large Stone Nymphs. This is a Streamer, that is being nymphed.

Actually, you could say it's just the opposite. Russ Blessing designed the Wooly Bugger to imitate a hellgrammite -- the nymph of the dobson fly. So, it's really a nymph that many people fish as a streamer.

The pattern that I would use to imiate iso nymphs (Prince Nymphs, Zug Bugs, etc) are often better fished like a small streamers, since the naturals are active swimmers, so those sort of straddle the line. And almost anything I'd use to imitate Green Drake or Hex nymphs could be called streamers, just due to the sheer size.